SIMpleONe89

Beautiful work.

What colour are you going with? Can't think of what matches with purple. 

Wow that's great! Angle grinders look like fun. I've not used one before. 

Regarding the neck, it is possible that the holes in the neck pocket aren't big enough, hence as you screw in the screws catch on the body and push the neck apart. The screws should be free of contact when it goes through the body. I had this problem before. Just enlarge the neck pocket holes and you should be good to go. 

Routing is fun! I haven't lost any fingers yet! Hahaha. 

You will need a stronger buffing/rubbing compound before the scratch x. Another trick is to wet sand in straight lines, alternating the direction with each grit. So if you start off with 1000 grit and sand perpendicular to the grain, the next grit should be parallel to the grain. 

As for soldering, it might help if you solder the pots outside the cavity, then transfer them when you are left with the pickup wires. Plenty of YouTube videos on how to solder. 

As for shielding, some guy did a video for a before and after shielding of single coils. I think as long as you have a decent Faraday cage, where the cavity is properly shielded, it should be fine. However I do think that pickup cavities look better with a flat black used with shielding paint. I don't like look of shiny copper peeking through the pickups! 

2 hours ago, Prostheta said:

Okay, car is maybe repaired. Until it's not.

I'll be binding the body with dark tortoiseshell 1,5mm celluloid with four inner 0,3mm purfling lines, making it "TWBWB". Time to give the new router binding cutter attachment a proofing when this comes in!

Pickupwise, I've more or less settled on a 5-string MM and a single coil in the neck. There's a lot of contrast between the two sounds which I think will work perfectly with dual output if I go that route. Still vacillating.

Ooo I love tortoise shell things. Gives it another level of classiness! 

Are you placing the MM bucker in the same location like in the stingray? I did a mod to one of my p bass copies last time and had to put the MM bucker nearer to the bridge. I couldn't get the classic stingray sound but the sound was beefy and nice. 

7 hours ago, Prostheta said:

Plastic is fine. As long as whatever you use resists any bending that the wood might decide to do. I suggest metals simply because you can take advantage of their conductivity for shielding purposes....saves adding tape to the plastic!

Maybe for my next project, a bass, I'll use some copper. 

8 hours ago, ScottR said:

Your hand rubbed bursts are nicely done. The transitions don't always come out that smooth.

SR

Thanks Scott. It was quite a challenge and hopefully it won't be hard for the body. 

On 23/05/2016 at 9:20 PM, Prostheta said:

Thicker than foil. Once the plates are screwed in place, they should hold their own. I'd use whatever you have on hand that feels resilient enough; 1/16" or 1-2mm is fine. Thicker is stronger of course. Let your hands tell you what seems right....a good flat piece of brass should make a fine backing plate. Just sand the glueing face and degrease it. If I recall, brass can be shellaced to protect it from corroding but will obviously make an electrical connect more difficult.

Oh btw Pros I decided to go for plastics. Turns out my tremolo block will definitely hit the cover plate so I can't recess it. I wouldn't want a thick cover plate bulging out if I can't recess it!

The neck.


Again I was rather disappointed with the lack of flames on this flamed maple piece. The top has stunning flames, but a pity this doesn't. 

You may notice that I also added some dark brown to the volute and the heel. I was trying to go for the vintage Les Paul jr type sunburst and it turned out quite well. Actually the real reason was because I forgot to sand the end grain to a higher grit so these were the parts which soaked in a lot of brown stain. I was tired of sanding back the brown so I decided to use it to my advantage. Turned out pretty okay!

The finishing process has begun! I've officially finished all the building so now it's sanding, staining and finishing. Exciting stuff!

I sanded the neck up to 240 grit and stained with UBeat brown and yellow dye. I first dyed it a dark brown and sanded back to try and pop the figure. Sadly, the flames on this piece weren't very good at all and I'm very disappointed. It was also a pain in the butt sanding back the brown dye because the sandpaper clogs easily and my arm was already tired from sanding it before dyeing.

Anyway, I attempted a bengal burst/tiger burst/tobacco burst, whatever the technical name is. I've not done a hand-rubbed burst for a long time but it was quite fun. I'll probably make some more adjustments tomorrow. 

I initially wanted a lighter brown but as I applied more (By accident actually! I spilled my jar of stain all over my table so I had to mop up the excess with my rag.) I grew to like the darker brown burst.

Here's the headstock, without flash.

With flash:

The back of the headstock:

I'll probably stain the entire back of the headstock a uniform brown because I think I want the burst to only be in front. 

Looking good. How big is that band saw? Are you going to build a neck too? 

Gotta love DIY metal hardware! 

23 minutes ago, Prostheta said:

You can laminate them up onto something that won't warp. Copper or brass sheet is a popular one for people that are shielding everything, or you can use a fibreboard laminate such as those used for Gibson headplates. Obviously for metal sheet you need to use an appropriate adhesive such as epoxy (roughen the metal to key it first) or even pressure-sensitive adhesive film. If you laminate it up, you should be able to thin it down "on the sheet" to the final thickness.

Thanks. What should the minimum thickness of the metal sheets be? 

Ah. Flashy fretboard. 

Will the LEDs under the fretboard ever stop working? What happens then? 

Thanks Pros.

I just spent an afternoon making my control and spring cavity covers out of some scrap flamed maple. They're currently at 3.5mm thick. What can I do to prevent them from warping in future? That is probably the thickest I can go because I intend to recess the spring cavity and I'm worried that the springs may not have enough clearance. 

Looking good! Carving the binding channels around that scroll looks tough. Also cool binding laminating jig!

Wow that's really cool! 

Oh since it's vinyl you may need more coats. I used waterslides and never had a problem with sand through and minimum 5-6 coats. From your pictures I can't really see it sticking out. 

You may need a stronger buffing compound before the polishing compound, the scratch x. That will remove most of the scratches from wet sanding. But be careful else you'll burn through. I think it looks good the way it is now. 

How many coats have u applied over the decal? When I use lacquer I put at least 5 coats over it but I also level sand it after three coats to make it easier for subsequent coats to level out. I think 1200 grit shouldn't be a problem to start with for wet sanding. 

Let's see what the others have to say. 

Thanks!

Spring and control cavities routed.



The pickup channel wire routes came out nicely.

Also drilled the knob recess on the top.

Sure! Hopefully I should be able to test on scraps by the end of this week. 

That's definitely a nice colour. I hope to do a similar one on mine.